Date:01/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/01/stories/2008120155390600.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

World AIDS Day ‘kavi sammelan’

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: A ‘kavi sammelan’ will be organised at the Indira Priyadarshini auditorium here on Monday on the occasion of World AIDS Day as part of an effort to spread awareness about the disease in the literary mode.

The unique literary feat being organised by the State government for the first time is expected to attract 25 poets who will get a topic each to blend in their literary skills, according to R.V. Chandravadan, Project Director, AP State AIDS Control Society.

He told a press conference here on Sunday that the ‘kavi sammelan’ was proposed because the government felt the need for more literature on HIV/AIDS. A large procession of stakeholders in AIDS control programmes would also be organised from Nizam College earlier in the day which would culminate in a meeting at the Ravindra Bharathi. He said there were an estimated 5.25 lakh HIV/AIDS infected persons in the State, of whom 90,000 were diagnosed last year. The AIDS awareness programmes in the State this year would be taken up under the slogan ‘mee nestam’.